James’ role at IGD is to help businesses anticipate and cope with strategic events, including: economic pressures, geo-political change, social developments and environmental stress.

James is well known for speaking at both UK and international events and provides interviews for TV, radio and the press. He also creates original reports and articles for IGD.

James has worked with clients across the entire grocery industry as well as with non-industry groups such as government departments, financial businesses and NGOs.

James joined IGD in April 1999 and has served in several roles, becoming Chief Economist in 2004.

Prior to joining IGD, he worked for Hillsdown Holdings, Northern Foods and Rank-Xerox.

Michael has responsibility for delivering expert economic and consumer insight to business leaders and stakeholders. This includes macro-economic insights such as IGD’s Shopper Confidence Index, and how shopper behaviour is changing due to key events such as COVID-19 and EU exit. Michael also focuses on driving strong engagement with IGD stakeholders through IGD’s Economics bulletin and providing thought leadership for IGD’s Viewpoint reports and series of webinars.

Michael is an experienced presenter, regularly delivering actionable shopper insights. He has significant agency and client-side experience in managing and conducting qualitative and quantitative research projects. He was previously Senior Insight Manager at Which? and has worked at both GfK Market Research and Research International.